Did Houston just endure its warmest week?

As we wait for the rain to come (or, gulp, not) one thing we can definitely count on is relief from the heat.

And what a week it’s been. The seven days just completed had an average temperature of 89.4 degrees. That’s about a degree lower than the average high temperature for mid-June.

Accordingly a reader asked if we’ve just endured the city’s hottest week on record. I didn’t think so, recalling a horrible week in early September 2000.

Nevertheless I asked Charles Roeseler, with the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service, to investigate the question. As usual, he came up with the goods. And alas, last week was far from the warmest Houston has endured.

Here, then, is a ranking of the top 30 warmest seven-day periods on record for the last 110+ years for the city of Houston.

As you can see, our humble little tinderbox last week checked in at no. 28 on the list. In fact, there was a week in June two years ago that was considerably warmer. And as for that period in 1962, well, it was bad.

Here’s the daily data for eight-day string of 100-degree days recorded in early June, 1962.